House of the Hunters
by EffulgentEllie
Summary: Edward and Bella run separate gun for hire groups, but are thrust together after the Swans move back to Chicago. The parents rekindle relationships and the new generation learn to share, but what will happen when their most threatening foe sees that together they pose an even bigger threat? Will Edward and Bella escape the Hunters in one piece? Rated M for violence & sexy goodness.
1. Worst Present Ever

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Twilight or any of the characters associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around. The only thing that belongs to me are my original characters and the plot. No copyright infringement is intended with the writing of this story.

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**CHAPTER 01  
Worst Present Ever**

Darkness surrounded me, yet I heard a very familiar beeping sound. The high pitched noise resonated through my skull and caused my brain to feel like mash. I groaned and tried to lift my lids, but their heaviness caught me off guard until the memories of this evening came crashing back.

I had accepted a contract from the Volturi. They were the top of the top of organized crime families here in Chicago and we had been taking contracts from them for years. Three brothers ran the family after their father passed, but everyone knew Aro, the eldest, was the one actually in charge. And he was the one to approach me with this job. I accepted it, seeing no harm in me and my cousins taking out a low level councilman. I was wrong.

So very wrong.

Aro apparently left out some very important details because, even after all our scouting, I was still blind sided with the amount of security this pudgy little man had. All I remembered was being tasered to the tenth degree and blacking out. Next thing I knew, I was here, with a raging headache and that insistent fucking beeping that would not stop annoying me!

I finally pulled my eyes fully open. "Fuck…" The word fell from my lips in one long, groggy syllable. I kind of wished I kept my eyes closed. Apparently Congressman Pudgy's bodyguards thought it would be funny to taser me and then tie me to a metal chair in the center of a deserted room. Well, deserted except for the nice clock that was situated directly in front of me. And was that explosives attached to the numbers that were slowly decreasing? Yes, you say? Fan-fucking-tastic!

I let out another loud, guttural groan and threw my head back; which was a big mistake because the pounding of my headache started up again in full force. Well, the clock read nine minutes and counting, so I decided I had better start trying to get out of my bindings, which were extremely tight and seemed a tad bit of an over kill.

I shimmied left and then right, back and forth until I felt the rope slightly give way around my legs and arms. After my right leg had a bit more room, I knocked the heel of my boot against the chair's metal leg and watched in relief as the small blade I kept concealed automatically extended. Another knock and the handle extended just pass my knee. I twisted my wrist, which was currently strapped to the arm of the chair, back and forth, and reached my fingers towards the handle. With no distance to spare, I pinched the tip and pulled the blade from my boot.

I made quick work of my wrist restraints, spinning the blade to slide it between my skin and the ropes and made quick slashing movements. The rope gave way quickly and I momentarily wondered if my elusive captors were on a budget and couldn't afford the good quality rope you found in your local Home Depot.

I shrugged at my observation and continued to remove myself of the restraints. With a quick glance up, I noticed I was down to six minutes and eighteen seconds. I was making good time. Just as I reached down to cut at the restraints holding my ankles to the legs of the chair, I heard the thunderous sound of helicopter blades slashing through the air and it was approaching quickly.

I began to hum the fated song as I slowly heard the beat to My Maria by Brooks & Dunn competing with the sound of the helicopter. Just as I freed myself and stood up, a beautiful piece of machinery made itself known through the window and my modelesque cousin was standing inside of it, looking annoyed beyond all hell.

Rosalie Cullen, younger twin of Jasper Cullen, was a force to be reckoned with. She was our computer and gadgets girl who loved to get down and dirty under the hood of any vehicle.

I gave Rosalie a cheeky grin and watched as she shot the glass out of the large wall to wall window before literally stepping off of the helicopter and into the degrading building with a nonchalance attitude that rivaled my own. She slid her favorite Glock 17 into the holster on her hip and marched towards me like a woman on a mission.

"What the fuck, Junior?!" Ah, so that's how it was. She only called me Junior, or anything other than Boss while we were on a mission, when she was either extremely pissed or extremely worried. "You went off coms for four hours and I couldn't get your tracker to register until twenty minutes ago!" Worried it is.

I nodded solemnly and wiped the grin off my face at Rose's explanation. "Sorry, Thorn. I was tasered and just woke up here a couple of minutes ago. Speaking of minutes…" The beeping from the wonderful present those bastard bodyguards had left me was starting to make itself known again. "We have about," I glanced to the mocking red numbers on the clock, "five minutes and forty-eight seconds before this entire floor blows."

Her face twisted into an unusual expression that made her look like she just took a huge whiff of sour milk as we approached the contraption. Jasper had pulled Maria, his helicopter, back up to the window and was now yelling instructions through it. "Hurry up, you two. I'm in restricted air space!"

I held up my finger, telling him silently to hold the fuck on for a second and went back to mine and Rose's task at hand. There was a multitude of colored wires, but two stuck out at me the most. "Which do you think? Red or green? Red… or green?"

She looked down once before nodding nearly instantly. "Red."

Her decision was made so quickly it actually startled me and I just had to know the reasoning for it; life and death situation or not. "Okay, Rose, enlighten me. Why are you so sure we should cut the red one?"

Rose glanced up at me with a look that screamed 'duh'. "Because roses are red. I'm Rose, the wire is red, and so we cut the fucker."

I baulked for a moment before shaking my head slightly to clear it of the confusion she caused. "If that's the logic we're going with, my eyes are green so why don't we cut the green one."

She growled under her breath and gave a more pronounced huff before shrugging. "Do whatever you want, Boss. Just hurry. Jay needs us out of here fast; as in yesterday."

The indicator showed we were at five minutes and thirty-three seconds. With a groan, I nodded. "If we die, I'm going to kill you." Rose let out a light chuckle as I slid my knife under the red wire. With a quick flick of my wrist, the wire split in half and the timer died out at exactly five minutes and thirty seconds. An 'I told you so' smile was spreading across her face and I was just about to wipe it off for her when the red numbers flashed back on, minus five minutes. We now had less than thirty seconds to do one of two things.

We could try the green wire and hope to all hell that it didn't subtract another five minutes we didn't have or make a mad dash for the window and Jasper's beloved Maria. "Fuck it!" I grabbed Rose's arm and spun on my heel, feeling that door number two was our better option.

Our thunderous foot falls competed with the blades of the helicopter that was hovering just outside of the window and with each step we took I heard another annoying beep letting me know that one more second had passed. We reached the window and I allowed Rose ahead of me so she could jump first, my family's safety always at the forefront of my mind, before quickly vaulting across the gap and following her into the safety of the back of the air craft.

Jasper pulled the lever and I felt us dip down slightly before being jerked to the side, away from the offending building and the world's worst present a bodyguard could leave a guy. I continued to count along with the beeps I could no longer hear the further we pulled away. "Five, four, three… Brace yourselves, one!"

Maria lurched forward with the force of the explosion as Rose and I stuck our heads out of the open door just in time to see the abandoned apartment building's top floor be engulfed in flames. The windows shattered in a miniature blast and the entire building began to shake and crumble.

I pulled us back inside and watched as Jasper wrestled his machine back under control, weaving between tree tops and pulling us up to avoid the roofs of the surrounding abandoned buildings. Rose and I slid headsets on and watched in silence as the homeless and runaways emerged from the bowls of the run down area to see what the commotion was about before diving back into their hiding spots as fire trucks and emergency service vehicles made their way through the cramped streets.

"So," Jasper's calm voice came through the speakers in my headset. "Nan expects us to be at Sunday lunch in about four hours."

My hand slid down my face in slight frustration as I groaned. "Really? It'll take us that long just to get home and land Maria."

He chuckled lightly and I could see his wavy hair bob as he nodded his head. "Yup," he drawled out.

"Fine. Take us back to Nan's. The last thing I need is Ruthie Cullen calling me and demanding why the three of us weren't on time for Sunday lunch."

That earned me a solid laugh from both my cousins as Jasper put us on course back to the Cullen Estate. Surely our parents would already be there, which meant they would want to know what we were up to last night and why we probably looked a bit crazed. I wasn't sure about my cousins, but I was still riding the high of the adrenaline from the building that just disintegrated mere moments ago. Without an outlet for all of this energy I was either going to go crazy or completely crash. Just thinking about it pushed my body to produce more of the chemical enhancer I thrived on during our contracts.

Spike of the adrenaline.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **This chapter was born from a story generator. I had to have a character tied to a chair, a helicopter in the distance, and an inevitable explosion. After I started writing, an entire story formed in my head. Hopefully it falls together as I see it. Read, review, let me know what you think.


	2. Meet The Cullens

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Twilight or any of the characters associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot. No copyright infringement is intended.

**WARNING: **This chapter discusses rape. It's not in great detail, but it does brush over the event and after affects. If this bothers you or you are triggered by such topics, please skip over it. Thank you.

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**CHAPTER 02  
Meet The Cullens**

The ride back to the Cullen Estate, as we liked to call it, took our entire four hour time limit. The extended trip wasn't because of the distance; it was because Jasper always took extra precautions. We wove through the city, circling the edges and dropping off of the radar so the incident couldn't be traced back to our name. That, combined with a quick stop to fuel up, and we made it back with moments to spare.

Maria was winding down on her platform at the edge of Nan and Pap's as Rosalie and I began unloading the back of all our gear. I slung my black cargo bag over my shoulder and turned around just in time to be jolted where I stood as a tiny body collided with my legs.

I glanced down and smiled at the full head of blonde curls my legs disappeared into. "Princess!" I exclaimed. The little girl tightened her hold on me and met my gaze.

"Uncle Eddie!"

I groaned at the shortened version of my name and shot Jasper a death glare as he chuckled lightly under his breath. The noise must have caught my niece's attention because she turned her stare towards my cousin and quickly moved on to give him the same treatment with a high pitched "Uncle Jazz!"

When I say niece, I use the term loosely; the Princess, whose real name is Riley Grace Cullen, is actually my second cousin because Rosalie is her mother. That story is not a happy one…

Rose was twenty years old and a sophomore in college when she was cornered by a group of guys. From what I understand, it took four of them to hold her down as Royce King, a low guy on the Volturi's payroll, forced himself on her. She managed to inflict a good bit of pain on her attackers, but the damage was still done. Five versus one isn't a fair fight no matter who you are.

When I came home from school that day, I found Rose in her shower, still clothed, and scrubbing her skin raw. The sight of it knocked the breath out of me. All of the women in my family took shit from no one and Rosalie was the toughest of them all, next to Nan, of course. I ended up calling Jasper while I climbed in with her, ruining my phone in the process. I managed to get her out and dried off by the time Jasper burst through the door looking for his twin in sheer terror.

After calming bothof them down, we managed to get a choppy story from her of the night's events. The first week we spent as a trio, helping Rosalie heal despite the rage the three of us felt boiling under the surface. After that we began planning revenge, but before we could take action, Rose discovered she was pregnant. I remember how my cousin struggled with the decision of whether to keep the baby or not. We even broke down and told our parents and grandparents about what happened.

A lot of talks, plenty of tears, endless nights planning, and I will never forget the sight of Rosalie walking towards a tied up, tortured, bloodied, and starving Royce King. Her protruding belly didn't take away from the fierce glint in her eyes as she stopped in front of him with one hand on her stomach and the other clutching her Glock at her side.

I don't know what she said when she bent over and whispered in his ear and Jasper swears he has no idea why the slime ball shuddered, but it was a startling sight to watch my heavily pregnant cousin pull her gun up and put a silenced bullet through the skull of her attacker who also happened to be her unborn child's father.

She still hasn't told anyone what she said to him, but one good thing came from Rose's horrible situation and that was my little Lee. She was the Cullen Princess and even though it was just a granted title, I loved being called uncle.

Riley had moved from Jasper to her mother and was prattling on about something or another as she helped Rose situate and stack bags on the ground. "…should have seen it, mommy! There was glitter and flour everywhere! But Nan and Pap said it didn't matter because it was the bestest cake they'd ever tasted. And it was! It was so good and I saved you guys a piece, but Nan says everyone has to eat their lunch first, so we have to hurry! Come on!"

The little blonde bottle of energy was starting to grow impatient with us. I marched up behind her, snatched her around the waist and let out a deep belly laugh at her high pitched shriek as I swung her over my shoulder. "You heard her, Rose! The bestest cake ever is inside and we need to hurry up and eat lunch."

Rose and Jasper laughed in return as they abandoned the cargo and followed me and my prisoner into the back door of the house. A combination of screeching and giggles filled the massive hall as we made our presence known. "Nan!" I yelled into the extravagant home as I put my red faced niece back on her feet. "We made it just in time!"

Riley huffed in annoyance and stomped her foot as only a five year old could. "Uncle Eddie! You know Nan doesn't like it when we yell. Use your inside voice." Her little face was scrunched up, eyebrows knitted together in disapproval.

Just as I was about to retort and start a childish bickering match with my niece, the woman of the house entered the grand hall. "You heard her, Junior; inside voice." The silver haired woman gave me a big grin, accentuating the laugh lines around her eyes and lips. I groaned, unsure of which was worse, Eddie or Junior.

Despite my annoyance at the names my family had given me, I grinned in return and waited patiently as my cousins received their hugs from our Nan until it was my turn. I walked up to her and wrapped her petit five foot one frame in my massive arms, towering over her. She squeezed me fiercely before pulling back and giving the three of us a once over. With a quick shake of her head and click of her tongue she pointed up the master staircase, silently telling the three of us that we looked unacceptable for lunch and to get cleaned up.

We trudged up the stairs faithfully and went about cleaning ourselves up to passable standards before returning to the dining room. The table was already set in a massive buffet style lunch, filled with everything from salads and breads to sandwich meats and fresh fruits with our parents, grandparents, and Riley already situated.

"Finally," Riley proclaimed, sounding extremely put out that we had to shower before sitting down for lunch, "now we can eat." And with that, everyone began to dig in. Lunch, like usual, was a boisterous affair. My parents, Edward Sr. and Elizabeth, were chatting with my uncle and aunt, Carlisle and Esme, about some sort of family vacation they were planning. Down the table, Nan and Pap were happily indulging Riley in whatever fantasy story she was going on about while Jasper, Rose, and I literally piled our plates full. I wasn't sure about my cousins, but our close call had me nearly famished.

And Riley's cake really was 'the bestest' cake I've had in a while.

After lunch wound down and we cleared the table, the entire family made their way out to the expansive back yard that held Riley's custom built tree house and play area. She took off like a bat out of hell and I was slightly worried for a moment that she would make herself sick after such a large meal, but figured Rosalie would have stopped her if that were the case.

The adults made themselves comfortable on the lawn furniture, chatting lightly and watching as the Princess did extremely impressive moves on her jungle gym in the corner of the lot before the conversation started taking a more serious tone.

"Edward, you don't think that's possible, do you?" Jasper's softer voice cut through my pleasantly spaced out mind. I glanced towards him, slightly confused. The expression must have been easily read on my face because he sighed heavily. "That Aro intentionally withheld important information about the Congressman's security detail?'

I took a few minutes to think about what he was asking. We touched on this topic lightly on our trip home and I had to say, as unnerving as it was, it was a very good possibility. I gave a one shouldered shrug, which seemed to be my go to response. "I'm not sure. It's very plausible and Aro always saw our family as a small threat."

"I never understood why." Rose commented. "We take contracts. Our main goal is money, not power. I, personally, could care less who ran what as long as they stay away from me and mine." Her gaze then intentionally cut towards her daughter.

I nodded in agreement. "True, Rose, but the brothers don't see it that way. All they see is a family with power at our disposal and a means to destroy the very rocky foundation that their power is built on. Would we? Not without just cause. I'm not particularly fond of starting a war in the middle of Chicago."

My father, Edward Senior, decided to join in on the conversation at that time. "Junior's right. I've seen war in my time, and I'm not talking about a nationally known one. I remember when your father and I were kids your age and Aro's father started expanding his territory. Chicago's streets were bloody for years, even after everything calmed down."

A silence settled over us, only broken through by Riley's giggles as she pushed herself higher on her swing set until a loud clap startled us. It was Nan, grabbing the attention of her family in the only way she knew how, in an over the top manner. "Alright, kids! Enough of the serious talk. Either way, if the Volturi wanted us gone, they would have gone with a more direct approach. As for now, I've missed all you strangers. Never here, too good to come and visit your beautiful Nan." She clucked her tongue in a tisk noise and shook her head. "Everyone stays here tonight and we'll have a hearty family breakfast in the morning."

Uncle Carlisle was just about to open his mouth to object, probably wanting to take my aunt home to an empty house, but Nan flicked her finger against the top of his ear. A muffled shriek followed by a gasp fell from his lips instead. I laughed out right as Nan gave everyone a large smile. "Any objections? No? Perfect!"

Grandmother of the year.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Well, you got to meet little miss Riley and Jasper, Rose, and Edward's Nan. Hope you enjoyed it. Keep in mind that this and the next few chapters will be about filling in the missing background information and setting up the characters and scenes. And remember! Reviews are food for a writer's soul!


	3. Beauty On A Crotch Rocket

******DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Twilight or any of the characters associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot. No copyright infringement is intended.

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**CHAPTER 03  
Beauty On A Crotch… Rocket**

Our nightly routine passed by like normal, except instead of being in the privacy of our own homes, we were all cramped together in the same house. Well, not really cramped. The Cullen Estate had enough rooms to put up the entire neighborhood, but it was the fact that we were all under the same roof.

The twins and I finished unloading Maria after Nan basically demanded in her sweet I'm-an-elderly-woman-that-you-would-never-deny voice that we stay. We moved everything to our respected rooms, dismantled all guns, and put the magazines behind our locked cupboards. Riley was smart and she knew the very basic of what we did, but she was still a five year old and none of us wanted to take that chance.

Sleep came and went last night. I probably only got about a total of three or four hours. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but I would have to socialize today. Plus, I still felt like I missed out on a fight last night and it had me a bit on edge.

Breakfast, like lunch and then dinner the night before, was an insane affair. When is it not when it involves the entire Cullen clan which consists of snarky grandparents, two sets of parents with brothers that constantly bickered, three mid twenty year olds, and a five year old? Actually, I'm sure if you were on the outside looking in, you would think my niece was the most mature out of the lot of us.

After winding down and watching some morning cartoons in the family room, my niece bounced over to me. She was definitely too awake for a Monday morning in the middle of July. Didn't kids sleep the days away during summer break or was that not the cool thing to do anymore?

She gave me a toothy grin as she blocked the television set. "Uncle Eddie," she sing-songed, "will you play hide and seek with me?"

Hide and seek this early in the morning? I'm fairly certain her mother gave her speed. I groaned and slid my hand through my hair, pushing the reddish, brownish, bronze-ish, whatever you wanted to call it, mess into twice the morning disarray it already was. "Ah, Lee. Why don't we just watch cartoons? We can play later this afternoon." That seemed like a fair deal to me, but apparently her five year old brain saw it as rejection as she began to produce big, fat tears. Damn-it! "Fine, fine!" I rushed out. "Just don't cry!"

The tears instantly disappeared and her toothy grin from before was back in full force. Crafty little fucker. Damn the Princess and her ability to make me cave instantly. No other woman has been able to manipulate me the way this pipsqueak has.

She grabbed my hand and I allowed her to lug my lazy ass off of the couch and out the front door. "We'll play out front; there are more places to hide! You count first." Her words were jumbled together as she spun me around and took off. Like a good uncle, I covered my eyes and began to count obnoxiously loud. "One! Two! Three!" It felt like hours, but I eventually reached one hundred. I spun on my heel and pronounced, just as loudly as my numbers, "Ready or not, here I come!"

The yard was completely empty, void of all movement aside from the occasional squirrel that darted from a flower bed to a tree. Those fuckers were brave because if Nan caught them she'd have a heart attack, but not before snatching up her broom and beating them senseless for disturbing her lilies.

As I began searching through the yard for my niece, I took notice of the line of moving vans that were making their way up the street at the end of our drive like a funeral procession. I kept my peripheral on them as I searched in bushes, behind trees, under window ledges, and even in the center of the circle drive where the lion statue stood.

Another, final, van pulled up, but this one was followed by a beautiful piece of machinery. If I was right, and I normally always was, it was a GSX1300R. The sleek body of the crotch rocket was pristine white with navy blue accents on the paint job. Beautiful! But the real beauty was who was straddling it. A petit body lay against the frame. Tone legs were wrapped around the base, one foot placed on the asphalt to balance herself and the still rumbling machine between her thighs as she waited for the van to move again.

A helmet covered head turned to look at me; it was white, to match the bike, but obviously had a custom paint job of a tribal-like swan in the same navy blue with a dark gray visor that was pulled down. I flashed a quick, crooked smile at her and raised a brow in suggestion. The beauty on the bike tilted her head to the side in what seemed like confusion then turned her attention back to the van in front of her, which was moving forward again. My cock hardened as she revved the engine with a quick flick of her wrist and took off down the street.

As the sound of the crotch rocket slowed down and then stopped further down the road, I spun on my heels in time to see Riley stomping down the circle drive. "Uncle Eddie! Did you forget about me again?"

I took in her aggravated appearance and nearly laughed, but I was smarter than that. Never laugh _at _a woman, even if said woman was actually a small girl. A man only needs to learn that lesson once. I matched her expression, but with puppy dog eyes, and dropped down on one knee so I was at her eye level. "What? No way, Princess. I was just checking out who is moving in down the street and where."

It took a moment, but her expression finally softened before she nodded, accepting my excuse. "Oh. Well, that's easy. Mrs. Ferguson finally died and someone already bought the house."

There was a second of silence while I took in what she said. Ferguson finally died? "Who told you that, Lee?"

"Pap." Her arms swept out in a dramatic gesture that made me feel like I should have known the answer without having to ask such a ridiculous question. Which I should have. That old man was worse with watching his mouth around the youngest Cullen than I was. "He said that maybe now he won't have to smell cat piss a mile down the road." Yup. He was definitely worse than me.

I wanted to laugh, I really did, but I knew Rose would disapprove. "Hey!" My reprimand was only half-hearted. "We don't use that kind of language."

She sighed heavily and rolled her eyes, which I'm sure she did on purpose because she knows how badly it aggravates me. "No, _I_ don't use that language. You guys use it all the time."

I couldn't fault her logic, so I nodded. Besides, I was the uncle; spoiling her and letting her get away with things she couldn't in front of Rosalie or our parents was in the job description. Just ask Jasper. "Alright then. How about we go inside and ask Pap about the new neighbors?"

She mimicked my previous nod. "Yeah, yeah. You always gotta know who's around."

Smart girl. She may not know all of the details, but she's a Cullen. Riley's far from stupid and her childlike innocence can only stretch so far. We do our best as a group to keep our side work what it is, on the side, but with the high risks and high number of injuries we've sustained, she's always had questions. We, as a family, don't like to lie to each other. We'll deflect and change topics and avoid and soften the truth with sweeter words for her child ears, but we won't lie.

She knows some, but never all.

And with that we made our way back up the long drive and inside. My very smart niece and I took a seat in the overcrowded family room. My father and uncle were discussing, more like arguing, over the perfect place to take a family vacation while their wives spoke quietly with each other. Riley, never one to make a small entrance, swung into Pap's lap and smiled up at him. "Hey Pap, Uncle Eddie wants to know all about how Mrs. Ferguson finally died and the new people who are moving in."

"Damn-it, Liam!" My Nan yelled, smacking Pap on the back of his gray head with enough force to knock his head forward with a jerk.

He reached his hand up, rubbing the now sore spot on the back of his head. "Jesus, woman," he growled, "She must have over heard me." Without missing a beat, he continued on with his usual rant of the elderly woman up the road. "That damn Ferguson had so many cats I could smell the piss all the way down here when the wind picked up. You knew she kicked the bucket months ago and a new family just recently purchased the house."

Even though his comments were directed at me, I nodded. "Do we know anything about them?"

He shook his head in the negative. My eyes connected with Rosalie's. "How about it, Rose? Care to see what you can find on our new neighbors?"

She grinned in response, always up for a challenge, and nodded. Within ten minutes, she was sitting on the floor, typing away furiously on her laptop. Normally, by this time, a triumphant smirk would cross her face and I would owe her a four figure amount of money, but apparently today just wasn't her day.

Rose huffed and puffed and growled and even went so far as to smack her precious laptop like she would smack Jasper or I upside our heads for not cooperating well, but she was still no closer to the identities of the newcomers. "Sorry, Edward. Everything about them from their files at the realtors to possible bank loans for the house address is encrypted. Then their encryptions are encrypted. I may be able to, but it would take a while. Whoever did this doesn't want to be found."

I grimaced at her declaration. Damn-it!

It bothered me to not know who was around my family; especially our main home where we spent a majority of the time. This was our safe haven in the end and I couldn't have it jeopardized. I would have to check the perimeter and make sure all of a security was good to go. Everything was due for a firmware update anyways.

"Well, we need to know who they are. I want to make sure they check out okay and get their story. Any ideas?"

A few moments passed before Aunt Esme smiled widely and clapped her hands once, mimicking Nan's go-to attention-getter. "I got it! What about a neighborhood barbeque? We could have it in the back yard and use it as an excuse to introduce them to everyone in their new neighborhood."

The women jumped on board with the idea, seemingly ecstatic to have a reason to throw together a quick and impromptu get-together. I, on the other hand, was a bit unsure of the idea. With us being the hosts, it put us at a huge risk. Yes, we would have the advantage over anybody wishing us harm since we knew the layout of the house and land, but it also allowed them into our home. Anyone could sneak off to nose around or plant bugs throughout the house.

"On one condition." I held up my finger and the chattering women ceased. You wouldn't think, with the way everyone listened to my terms, that I was the second youngest in the entire family, but I took my leadership title seriously and the protection of my family even more so. I knew it. They knew it. "Back yard only and everyone uses the gate entrance on the side of the yard. I don't want anyone walking through the house."

Quick nods across the room were all I saw before the women dove back into their talks of planning and preparations.

Women of the Cullens.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Hm? Wonder who the beauty on the crotch rocket is? *cough* *cough* :) We'll be meeting a new family soon. Questions, comments, or suggestions? Leave a review. I eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Num-num-num!


	4. BBQ Party Planning

**CHAPTER 04  
BBQ Party Planning**

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**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Twilight or anything associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around and no copyright infringement is intended. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot.

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**EPOV**

The men, including me, were left to fend for ourselves for lunch as Nan worked on a delicious smelling casserole and Riley helped her two grandmothers make double chocolate chip cookies. Yes, two grandmothers. Just like she considered me an uncle, she considered my own parents a second set of grandparents.

Deciding that it wasn't worth the hassle of fighting through the mess in the kitchen, not to mention the fact that everyone in the Cullen house with a Y chromosome seemed to be lazy as hell when it came to domestic duties, we opted to order a couple of large pizzas. The only thing we trekked through the kitchen for was the twenty four pack of beer in the fridge, which Jasper had to grab since he drew the short straw from Pap's hand. My poor cousin came back frazzled and looking like he walked out of a war zone. But he got the beer, so it was all worth it in my eyes.

We nestled our asses into the extremely comfortable cushions in the family room and turned the excessively large screen television onto ESPN. It was extremely stereotypical; five men drinking beer, eating pizza, and not giving two shits about our health as we vegged out in front of the television to watch a random sports game we normally didn't follow, but it felt so right.

We were watching the Chicago Cubs play against the Washington Nationals and having a heated debate on whether baseball should be allowed more violence when Nan walked through the room with that delicious casserole she was working on earlier and a box of Riley's double chocolate chip cookies.

Pap pushed the foot stool of his recliner down, sitting himself up. "Where are you taking that food to, Ruthie?"

She paused at the doorway to shoot him in a quick glance. "To our new neighbors, of course. Someone has to invite them over for the barbeque and it would be rude to show up without a welcome to the neighbor gift." She gave a quick, sweet smile across the room to all of 'her boys' and left.

Pap propped his feet back up, mumbling something along the lines of how "that woman would feed every damn soul on the street and put him out of house and home if he let her". I kept my chuckle to myself and just shook my head. That was one relationship I would never understand, yet, at the same time, craved to have something similar.

It was a strange feeling to want what my grandparents had because their relationship was anything but normal. Liam and Ruthie Cullen were both extremely hard headed and overly opinionated. While my Pap knew how to put his foot down when needed, he also knew that my Nan took no shit, no matter what he said. What they had was special in my eyes.

Every woman I've met, weather it was during high school, college, or out on the town, was never up to par. I always seemed to find something wrong with them. They were either too clingy, too fake, too annoying, too, too, too. It was like my reasoning for dropping a girl was a never-ending list of too this or too that.

Whatever.

Eventually, we fell back into comfortable silence watching as over-paid athletes threw a ball back and forth. During that time every woman in our family seemed to pass through the room at least a dozen times each, including my niece. I was startled once when they began carrying large bags of who-knows-what back through from the front door. Normally, one or all of us would offer to help, but we weren't stupid. They were in deep party planning mode and once you walked through that rabbit hole there was no going back. You would be sucked in by offering to carry a few bags of groceries then, the next thing you know, you're climbing a thirty foot ladder to place ridiculously colored lights on the roof of the house.

Nope. I won't be the one to break the tenuous glass that kept us in our nice little bubble in the family room. Not this year. I was still getting grief about last Christmas.

But it was bound to happen eventually and I watched in silent horror as Uncle Carlisle stood from the couch he was on and walked towards his wife. "Hear, honey, let me help you with that." The rest of the room let out simultaneous groans of disbelief as he pulled two large bags from her hands.

She gave him a big, crest commercial worthy, smile and kissed his cheek. "Oh! Thank you so much! Why don't you and the rest of the men finish unloading the car for us? You can just leave everything on the dining room table." And then she was gone, as if she vanished in a puff of smoke before we could make excuses.

We had been pulled down the rabbit hole.

Pap shut the television off, slammed the foot rest of his recliner down once again, this time with much more force, and pulled himself up. "Damn-it, son! Haven't I taught you anything?" At least my uncle had the decency to look remorseful.

So, the reminder of our afternoon was spent carrying large amounts of bags and depositing them onto the dining room table. Well, that's a lie. Retrieving the bags only took the five of us about an hour, the other two hours were spent unloading said bags after my mother walked in and roped my father into the task; the rest of us along with him.

No man left behind and all that bull shit.

Just as we were finishing up, Nan walked into the dining room, headed for the kitchen, with a large grin on her face. I could only assume that she approved of the new neighbors and they had agreed to join us for our impromptu neighborhood barbeque, but I didn't have to ask. Pap did that for me.

"How'd it go, Ruthie?" He slid up beside her, still pretty spry for a seventy year old man, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She nodded and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Wonderful. The most adorable girl answered the door. So pretty and cheerful. All smiles, that one was." Her body twisted in my grandfather's hold as she directed her gaze towards Jasper. "She'd be perfect for you, dear."

As my cousin's cheeks turned a feminine shade of pink I had to suppress the growl that wanted to rise up in my throat. Surely she wasn't talking about my crotch rocket Beauty? I wouldn't use adorable and pretty describe those deliciously toned legs or the plump little ass that was pushed out on the seat of her bike. No. More like bitable or tasty.

Fuck. When did I start thinking of a woman like I would a delicious turkey dinner? Then again, those legs alone would cause any man's mouth to water.

I must have spaced out in my musings because I came back to my grandmother squealing like a teenage girl and slugging Pap in the shoulder. My eyes darted over just in time to watch him retract his hand from her butt and I shuddered. That was definitely one sight I could have went without seeing.

Without see again, anyways. They scarred me once as a young child and I still, to this day, do not want to think, talk, or even mention anything about it.

Apparently everyone else agreed because there was another round of groans through the room. Nan walked out of the room unfazed by our reactions as my grandfather shot us all daggers. "Shut your mouths, the lot of you! If it wasn't for your Nan's delectable ass, none of you would be here today!" Instead of his statement putting us in our place, it nearly caused another wave of disgusted sounds to resonate through the dining room. Yeah, I loved the type of relationship my grandparents had, but that didn't mean I wanted to witness it.

"Liam!" My Nan's voice reverberated down the master staircase that led to the second floor. Pap sent us a cheeky grin and spun on his heel. He made quick work of the steps and the last thing we heard was a womanly giggle followed by the slamming of the door.

Perverted old man.

My father slid his palm down his face and shook his head in disgust. "Jesus, dad," he muttered under his breath then turned towards the rest of us. "Alright, we all know that the women will hound us later if we don't help out, even though they won't ask for assistance out right in the first place. Damn mind games. So, let's divide and conquer, shall we?"

A chorus of "sure"s followed his little speech and eventually we grouped together to divide the responsibilities that were sure to fall on us. Basing everything off of what we unpacked it was decided that my father and uncle would start preparing the meat to barbeque for tomorrow while Jasper and I handled all the decorations. We broke apart and began our chores.

Normally the women went above and beyond for everything they did, especially parties, but they seemed to tame it back this time around. Maybe they didn't want to scare off the new family? Either way, Jazz and I were extremely thankful. We strung a few lights through the back yard, decorating Nan's hedges and a few posts. Afterwards we found ourselves putting a rather large sign out in the front of our large driveway then another sign showing the direction to the side entrance. At least they held true to my one condition.

We were sitting on the large living room floor, blowing balloons up, when Rosalie and Riley returned. I tied a knot in the balloon I just finished and flicked it at my niece, grinning as she giggled and smacked it back to me. "Where did you and your mom go, Princess?"

She walked over and sat between me and Jasper. I handed her a balloon, picked up one of my own, and began inflating it as she explained her adventure. "Mommy and I took my cookies and invitations around the neighborhood. Everybody is coming, Uncle Eddie! All the kids and everything." She exclaimed.

I laughed and tied off yet another balloon. "Sounds great, but you gave all of your cookies away?" I proceeded to give her my best wounded puppy look because, damn-it, those cookies did smell delicious earlier!

Her eyes rolled slightly and she produced two double chocolate chip cookies, handing one to Jasper and then one to me. "You're the best, Princess!" She grinned as we dove into the deliciousness that was still warm cookie and melting chocolate chips.

The night continued with Jasper and I blowing up an extremely large amount of balloons. Seriously, I was certain there were enough white, silver, and blue balloons to cover the entire back yard. The last thing I remember before dozing off is watching the animated brunette from Beauty and the Beast step toe to toe with her cursed captor.

Highlight of the movie.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Seems like everything is under way to meet the new family up the road. We're getting a closer look at the dynamic of the Cullen family and exactly what runs through Edward's head when he deals with day to day life. We'll be learning about the other side of their family in a bit and the action side of the story will be picking up soon. Suggestions, comments, criticism? Leave me a review, please.


	5. Stand Off Of The Mini-Me's

**CHAPTER 05  
Stand Off Of The Mini-Me's**

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**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Twilight or anything associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around and no copyright infringement is intended. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot.

* * *

**EPOV**

The next day was a flurry of activity as the remaining decorations were put up, my father and Uncle Carlisle fired up the grill with Pap as the perfect supervisor, my mother and Aunt Esme were running side dishes out to the large table placed along the side of the back yard, and my Nan was standing at the side gate, greeting our guests as they arrived.

And arrive they did.

Everyone in the neighborhood seemed to have gotten an invite and had come early except for the one family we wanted to officially meet. I walked through the back door with the intention of helping Nan greet the guests, but was surprised at the sight before me. The back yard was packed with people and, if they were hormonal teenage girls, it would have looked like a Justin Bieber concert.

Due to the extensive amount of people, I instructed Rose and Jasper to help me roam the crowd and keep an eye on everybody. The last thing I needed was for something unexpected to happen while I was trying to get a feel on the new family in the neighborhood.

Riley wove through the legs of the adults in the crowd; another little girl was in hot pursuit of her as she collided into my knees. "Oof!" I groaned out. "Jesus, Princess!" She giggled like a maniac and spun around to check on her pursuer's distance.

My niece went to maneuver around me, but I side stepped and blocked her again. She let out another crazy giggle and looked up. "Uncle Eddy, Cordelia's gonna get me!"

I feigned serious surprise and threw my hand over my mouth. "Oh! Then you better get your butt in gear!" She glanced behind her again, startled to see the other little girl, Cordelia, had gained so much distance.

"Drats!" She yelled, obviously picking up Nan's attempts to keep from cursing in front of her, and then darted around me. Just as Riley got out of my blockade, Cordelia booked it pass me with a smile and a quick "Thanks for trying, Mister E!" thrown over her shoulder.

I laughed, but was pulled from my little show when I heard my Nan squeal. Honestly, I was a little afraid to look because it reminded me of the one from yesterday and how I saw my Pap's hand leaving her butt afterwards, but I did anyways.

Because I'm a brave man.

She was at the gate of our yard, hugging a man who looked a little stiff before moving onto a smiling reddish-brunette that was more on the artificial red side. The woman seemed a bit more receiving to the gesture my Nan offered and even hugged her back.

"Liam! Carlisle! Senior! Get your asses over here! You'll never guess who it is!" My grandmother's voice carried across the back yard and I watched as the three men who were summoned instantly stopped what they were doing and followed orders. That made me chuckle.

My laughter, however, was caught in my throat as a beautiful brunette stepped around the small crowd that had gathered around Nan and the new comers at the gate. Her hair framed her heart shaped face in natural bouncy curls and she seemed to be wearing minimal make up, but she also didn't seem to need any. A loose and flowing, electric blue tank top fit her perfectly and the front was slightly tucked into a pair of black skinny jeans that then led down to a pair of small heeled, calf high boots.

Fucking beautiful!

Wait a minute… I know those thighs, those toned legs.

She was my crotch rocket Beauty!

A mischievous grin spread across my lips as I realized I could now place a face with the body that I silently lusted after yesterday. And it surely didn't disappoint. Her arrival also meant the new family had finally made it to our get-together.

Either she didn't notice me or she decided not to pay me any attention as she shot a pointed look at the two people conversing with my family and then walked into the back yard followed by a sprite looking girl and a giant of a man. We're they all related? I hoped so. Even though I was still urging for a fight from a few days ago, I wasn't particularly fond of fighting over a girl. Actually, I never had to.

I decided to leave them to their mingling and keep an eye on their dynamics as I glanced over the back yard, always mindful of my surroundings and the locations of my family members, especially the Princess.

Speaking of the Princess, Riley was making her way to a young boy who couldn't have been older than seven or eight, but the kid was a little stocky, making him look a few years older than my estimation. He looked like the Hulk's mini me or, better yet, that giant's mini me who followed my Beauty in.

Knowing how out going my niece could be, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see how a meeting like that would go so I sidled a bit closer, just enough so I was in hearing range, and kept them in my peripheral as I continued to scan the crowd. Beauty seemed to be doing the same thing, her own eyes darting across the unfamiliar surroundings she and her family found themselves in.

She was scanning the milling crowd once again when her gaze finally locked with mine. Even from this distance I could feel the heat of uncertainty and distrust through her stare. I nearly broke our connection when I heard Riley dive head first into introductions, never shy and never afraid.

"Hi, I'm Riley, but you can call me Lee if you'd like. Everyone else around here seems to." Her voice came out in a sweet sing-song tone, showing kindness and acceptance to the new kid on the block. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Lee produced her hand to shake.

The boy baulked for a second before he doubled over in a fit of laughter. Our Princess let him have his giggle fest for a few moments before probably deeming it rude, pulling her hand back, and placing two tiny fists on her hips. She raised one, petite, blonde eyebrow in an identical version of her mother's famous bitch-brow before huffing out an impatient, "What's so funny?"

He eventually calmed himself enough to answer her. "_Lee_?!" He mocked. "Riley _and_ Lee are _boy_ names!" Once he announced his reason, he doubled over in another fit of heavy chuckles.

His response caused the corner of my lip to lift in a crooked, probably sinister looking, smile. My niece was a lot of things, and I'm one of the first to call her out on her shit despite her age, but she wasn't a push over.

At the change in my expression, Beauty lifted a brow in question… or concern? I'm not quite sure which because I broke our staring contest and turned my full attention to Riley just in time to watch her draw back her tiny fist and release it with all of her might. It landed perfectly on Hulk Junior's jaw, catching him off guard and causing him to stumble back a few feet. After a moment of stunned silence, he grabbed his jaw, trying to rub out the ache.

She may be a petit princess, but Riley sure as hell could pack a punch for a kid her age.

I was just about to let out a loud, belly deep laugh, which I assumed would be completely inappropriate since the entire yard was engulfed in silence due to the mini me scene unfolding before us. However, all humor left me when I watched the boy curl his hand into a tight fist and pull his arm back with the intention of striking my little Lee.

Un-fucking-acceptable.

My body was moving before my mind had a chance to catch up with my actions and I was acutely aware of two things. There were approximately five other adults pushing their way through the crowd, my twin cousins among them, and I would undoubtedly reach the Princess first.

As predicted, I was the first at Riley's side and I wasted no time snatching her up and spinning her around to place her protectively behind my body. The boy's punch landed on my hip exactly where Lee's face was seconds ago. He blinked in confusion, probably from the fact that he felt denim instead of my niece's pudgy cheek.

I jerked my body forward, only wanting to scare him, and watched in sick satisfaction as he stumbled back instinctively. His bulky body bumped into the massive legs of the giant from before, the one I assumed was his father.

"What's going on, Dee?" Even his voice was deep, matching the size of his body perfectly. If I were any other man it may have been intimidating.

Dee, as the giant had called him, straightened his posture and looked up at the man. "That little girl, _Lee_," he sneered, "punched me, dad!" Yup, I knew it; father and son; Hulk and Hulk Junior.

The Original Hulk looked straight at me, "Is that true?"

I put a crooked smile back on, stood a little taller, and shrugged one shoulder. "Dunno." It felt like an extremely cocky thing to do, but I wasn't about to rat my niece out to these two brutes. Yeah, she may have hit the little fucker, but he deserved it in my opinion.

Instinctively, I felt Rose pull Riley from the scene and Jasper took a spot by my side. I watched as, at the same exact time, the sprite looking girl removed the boy from the middle of our stand off and my crotch rocket Beauty took a stand beside the massive man she entered the yard with.

"What's going on, cousin?" Jasper's voice reached me, cutting through the tension between the four of us, but not breaking it.

I glanced at him quickly, never taking my full attention off of the odd duo in front of us. My crooked smile grew and I gave another quick, one shoulder shrug. "Dunno."

My cousin barely contained his chuckle, but neither of us could contain the mischievous glint in our eyes. Apparently we were on the same wave length; still looking for that fight that we were denied days ago. Anyone who says women were the ones who held grudges hasn't met a Cullen man.

The Hulk took a step forward, tightening his fingers into fists at his side. "I think you do, _cuz_." He sneered, sounding like a deeper version of his son. I shuffled forward, Jasper following my lead, and prepared for the brute to throw the first punch.

Our fun was stunted before it could even begin as my Beauty stepped between us. She turned away from us slightly, giving the other man her undivided attention. "Calm down, Em." Her voice came out like silk with a commanding under tone and the big guy visibly relaxed.

A quick glance towards Jasper and I'm sure my expression mirrored his; we were disappointed the fight wasn't going to happen. That didn't seem fair and apparently I had a giant bowl of cocky asshole this morning for breakfast. "Come on, Beauty, step aside and let us boys have our fun."

Would I normally address a woman that way? Never. Especially because every woman in my family, including my five year old niece, would have my balls on a platter if they heard me and I'm particularly attached to those bastards.

Em, as Beauty called him, huffed in agitation at my remark before taking up another defensive stance. Beauty glanced over her shoulder at me, annoyance written all over her features. Without removing her eyes from mine she addressed the giant. "Calm. Down. Em." Her voice kept its silkiness, but the commanding tone increased ten-fold with each punctuated word. My traitorous cock hardened little by little. There was a long, pregnant pause before the giant of a man stepped down with a quick nod in understanding as he turned to presumably find his son.

I held my stare with Beauty, refusing to be the first to back down. She may think she has control over everyone, that she's hot shit, but I'll be damned if I bow my head and walk away like her other whipped dog.

Eventually, Jasper's hand clapped down on my shoulder, startling the both of us, as he pointedly shot his gaze to the still silent crowd. Even Em was staring at us. I cleared my throat once and nodded my head in parting before my cousin and I turned to reconvene with my family.

Awkwardness of the moment.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Well, I think we all saw that coming, right? No? Well, Riley's a spunky little fire cracker. She's Rosalie's daughter after all. :) I nom-nom-nom reviews!


	6. Meet The Swans

**CHAPTER 06  
Meet The Swans**

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**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Twilight or anything associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around and no copyright infringement is intended. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot.

**PREVIUSLY, ON HOUSE OF THE HUNTERS:** There was a standoff of the mini-me variety. The barbeque was in full swing when little Miss Riley introduced herself to Em's son, Dominic. Dee, which was Dominic's nickname by his father, sneered and poked fun at Riley's boyish names. Riley is a Cullen and takes no shit, so Dee was met with a tiny fist full of five year old fury. She was saved from retaliation by her Uncle Eddie and there was a more adult sized version of their standoff between Edward and Bella. They eventually parted, not a word spoke between them.

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**EPOV**

The night progressed at an agonizingly slow pace. The kids played, delicious barbeque was devoured, people mingled, and all the while, I kept my eyes on Beauty.

Do you want to know the best part? She never took her eyes off of me, either.

Throughout the entire night we seemed to gravitate around each other. I wasn't sure if it was a mutual attraction or she was simply keeping me in her sights at all times, but I continuously felt her heated gaze burning a hole through my back or the side of my head.

The party slowly began to die down as our surrounding neighbors left family by family. Dee, the brute who confronted my niece at the beginning of our get-together, had passed out on a comfortable lawn chair right after the sun set.

My Aunt Esme, the soft hearted person, allowed Em to carry the boy into the house and put him to bed in one of the guest rooms upstairs. Not long after, I watched as Jasper carried a very tired looking Riley up to her room. It looked like she was about to protest, but he whispered something in her ear and she quickly agreed before laying her head back on his shoulder.

He probably promised her some kind of spectacular sugary goodness for breakfast tomorrow.

There were only a handful of guests left when my father called me over to the patio where the man and woman from the front gate were standing. I straightened my posture and casually made my way in their direction.

"Yeah, dad?"

"Ah! Edward!" He seemed way too happy for someone who spent his entire night socializing with the locals. "I wanted you to meet an old friend of mine!" My old man's face stretched into the most ridiculous smile.

The man who stood beside my father seemed a bit uncomfortable with the attention. His porn worthy mustache twitched in what I could only presume was embarrassment. It didn't last long, though. The man stuck out his thick hand, offering it to me.

"Swan. Charlie Swan." A laugh busted out of my mouth without permission at his unintended James Bond impression. The way his thick eyebrows turned towards themselves told me he wasn't pleased with my reaction.

I quickly wiped the smile off of my face, replacing it with a mask that sat somewhere between indifference and polite interest. My quick turn of emotions must have thrown him off because he pulled one of those eyebrows up while holding my gaze.

There was no winning with this man, so I followed his lead and grasped his hand with mine, giving it a firm shake. "Cullen. Edward Cullen. Nice to meet you."

That earned me a huff which caused the aforementioned stache to lift slightly. The woman, who stood to the side and slightly behind him, gave me a radiant smile. "And I'm Renee!" Before I could even focus my attention on her, she threw her arms around me. "Oh god! I remember when you were in diapers! You were so chubby! But look at'chu now!" She was gushing and pinching parts of my body that I didn't feel comfortable with.

People had a thing called 'personal space' for a reason.

I kept a polite smile on my face as I slowly removed her hands from squeezing my cheeks and sides and took a large step backwards. "Nice to meet you, Renee. Or should I say, it's nice to meet you _again_?"

That earned me another grin. "It is, it is!" Her head bobbed up and down with her enthusiasm and I worried it would fall off of her shoulders. The only person I knew who could match such energy was a five year old mini-Rose. "Have you offically met our kids yet? They're around here somewhere."

She must have been speaking about the few group we ended up in a stare down with.

Her hazel eyes that seemed to semi-clash with her obviously bottle colored red hair darted over my shoulder to search out the children she mentioned. I, however, turned my attention back to my father. With one look, he knew what my intention was. Despite there being a history between our families that I wasn't privy to, I needed to get a feel for the new family on our block.

"It seems there's some history here, dad. The party is winding down and Nan is showing the last of the guests out so I vote for the rest of us heading inside and grabbing a case of beer."

My Uncle Carlisle approached our small group and clapped me on the back. "Agreed!" He announced out of nowhere, making me think that the talk of relaxing with a cold drink brought him out of his hiding spot from the yard. "My nephew is a genius in disguise. Let's take this inside and get comfortable."

There was a nod of agreement from everyone before we drifted apart to collect the remaining members of our families, informing them of the change in scenery.

I was the last one in after offering to pick up the little bit of trash that littered the yard. Normally, while on a job with my cousins, I would be the first one in and the last one out, but not this time. I wanted to see more of their dynamics. You could learn a lot about a person simply from where they chose to sit.

As I entered the sitting area, I took note of everyone's location. Charlie and Renee had opted to sit in the love seat on one side of the coffee table while Em and the smaller, sprite-like girl took up a space and a half on the couch, with my Nan sitting beside them. My family brought in chairs from the dining room to accommodate the larger amount of people and ended up spreading out throughout the room.

The only one who looked uncomfortable, well, more so than Charlie, was my Beauty. She was casually leaning against the wall behind her parents. Yes, she seemed comfortable enough, but, once I looked hard enough, I could see the slight tension in her stance and the way her eyes moved across the space every few seconds. It also didn't escape my notice that she was by the closest exit with her entire family within view and reach.

Interesting. I wondered if she simply had good survival instincts or was trained that way.

I kept an even expression on my face and walked around the room. The seats were full, which gave me a perfect excuse to stand. Although, I always preferred it, especially when entertaining guests I still knew very little about. So, I took up residency on the opposite wall as my Beauty.

Once Nan saw I had joined them, she wasted no time in jumping into conversation. "So, Charlie. Why don't you introduce us to these two beautiful girls?" Her hand swept out and motioned towards Beauty first, then the smaller girl, who I had deemed Sprite, beside her.

Charlie's mustache twitched slightly, obviously not enjoying the attention being placed on him, but before he could respond, Sprite charged in head first. "Oh! I'm so sorry, we never officially introduced ourselves." The girl looked genuinely upset with herself for not having done such a thing earlier.

"Most of you know our parents, Charlie and Renee Swan." She beamed at them before continuing on. "My name is Alice and this is my brother Emmett." Her hand patted Emmett's knee and the massive difference in their sizes was slightly shocking. "Emmett's son, Dominic, is asleep upstairs. And that," Her hand swept out, gesturing in my Beauty's direction, "is my sister, Bella."

_Bella? _Beauty. Beautiful.

The name seemed to fit her perfectly; however, Bella didn't seem to appreciate how her sister so willingly offered up information to an unknown family. And who could blame her?

I would be beyond pissed if Jasper or Rosalie offered up such information to someone I didn't fully trust yet. Nothing stopped my grandmother, though. Nan didn't seem to care how pissed off I'd be, because she took over right where Alice left off.

"Aren't you just precious?" She smiled sincerely before shooting Jasper a pointed gaze. I saw out of the corner of my eye how he lightly sighed and rolled his own orbs in exasperation. He's just lucky Nan didn't see that shit.

"Well, my name is Ruthie and this is my husband Liam, but everyone just calls us Nan and Pap." She kept the same pleasant smile on her face as she began gesturing around the room. "This is my oldest son and his family; Carlisle, his wife, Esme, and their twins, Jasper and Rosalie. Rosalie's daughter is also upstairs and you'll officially meet her soon, but her name is Riley."

There were small nods of greeting and semi-genuine smiles. "And this is my youngest son and his family; Edward Senior, his wife, Elizabeth, and their son," Her swinging hand finally landed in my direction, "Edward."

I tried to offer my best nice-to-meet-you smile, but it honestly felt a little tight lipped. I threw in a slight head nod to try and make up for my lack of facial expression. It seemed to work well enough.

There was a long pause of slightly awkward silence as our groups adjusted to our new company, but that was quickly broken as Sprite let out a girlish-whisper to Rosalie, "God! I just love those shoes!" The entire room seemed to take the break in tension as a chance to split up and reacquaint or completely get to know each other from scratch.

Everyone except Bella, my crotch rocket beauty.

She stayed up against the wall, eyes wandering every which way, but never straying far from her family for long. At least I now knew her and the big guy, Em, weren't in a _thing_ together. As I kept my eyes locked to her form I decided she could use a drink. And so could I.

Seeing how my family wasn't in any immediate danger, I pushed myself off of the wall and stretched my muscles on my way into the kitchen. I rummaged through the high cabinets and came out with my prizes, two tumbler glasses and a bottle of top shelf scotch.

Did the scotch have a brand? Sure, but I didn't particularly care which one I grabbed. Pap would never let cheap liquor pass over his threshold, let alone his beloved drink of choice.

The bottle touched my lips and I took a quick swig before filling each glass neatly with three fingers deep of the amber liquid and replaced it back in the cabinet.

I approached Bella, tumbler in hand, and immediately regretted my decision. Fuck! What if she wasn't a liquor drinker? Didn't most women drink those ridiculously colored froo-froo drinks with strange umbrellas sticking out of them?

Just as my mind was made up to return to the kitchen and claim both glasses for myself, our eyes locked. Double fuck. Now I would seem like a rude asshole for not offering her the drink that was obviously intended for her.

Without saying a word, I stretched my arm out and passed her the glass then leaned my ass back against the wall to her side. She eyed the glass cautiously before sticking her pinky into the liquid and swirling it about. The liquor sloshed around the sides as she pulled her finger out, glanced at the nail polish on her pinky, and then stuck it in her mouth. I watched, wickedly entranced by how her pink lips wrapped around the petit digit, sucking until the sticky liquid was off.

She hummed ever so lightly and took a healthy sip from her glass. If she was anything like me, and I was beginning to think we were more alike than not, she wanted to keep her wits about her.

Neither one of us touched our drinks aside from our first sip as we watched in complete silence while our families merged together around conversations. My cousins had taken over Nan's spot on the couch, talking some shit or another with Beauty's siblings, while Nan and the remaining women were together in the center of the room, smiling and catching up on the years that had passed them by.

The real question was what the men were up to. Charlie, Uncle Carlisle, and my father were huddled together like some kind of tightly grouped gossiping preteens. There were big smiles and enthusiastic head nods to complete the comparison.

I knew I would be informed of their conversation soon enough and I didn't have to wait long. Eventually, all three men nodded in unison before they stood up and headed in our direction. Beauty locked eyes with her father as the remainder of the room kept to their own personal conversations.

My Uncle Carlisle, always the diplomat, stepped forward fist. "Edward, Bella." He nodded his head in greeting. "The three of us would like to propose an idea. Our families have actually known each other nearly our entire lives and we think it would be beneficial for your two groups to join together."

I was about to interrupt, not liking this idea one bit, but Charlie stopped me from opening my mouth. Apparently, Bella felt the same way as I did. "I think you should hear us out, Bells. I only want what is best for the family." She bristled slightly at his remark, causing her posture to become straighter.

Another long pause of silence fell between the five of us, this time, however, felt a bit more awkward than when we were standing alone. Eventually, Bella stood straight and cocked an eyebrow at her father. There was a silent battle of wills between their heated gaze before she eventually huffed in an I'm-a-teenager-and-I-hate-the-entire-world-just-because-I-can kind of manner.

She pulled the tumbler to her lips and I watched in sick curiosity as she downed the remainder of her scotch. It surely burned, but her expression never changed as she sat the glass down on the edge and made her way through the hallway, towards Pap's office.

Either she was taking a guess and getting lucky or she knew exactly where she was going.

I cocked an eyebrow at the men before me and turned to watch her leave. However, I didn't want to have this conversation where all ears could pry either, so I pushed myself off of the wall. "Perhaps a private setting would be better?" I then followed my crotch rocket beauty's lead and tossed the amber liquid down my throat.

Yup. It definitely burned, but in a good and soothing kind of way all the way down my throat until it settled in my stomach. The heat warmed me nearly instantly. I smirked as I placed my tumbler next to hers and trailed after the brunette, followed closely by our family.

As we approached the door I felt a soft shift in my demeanor. I can be a light-hearted and fun guy most of the time, but when it came to business, to _family_, there was no joking to be had. I had to shift myself into a mode of cold-hearted logic and consequential decisions.

Business side of the boss.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **I'm sorry this was a bit late. I actually had this chapter written and ready to upload, but when I pulled it up to read through it again for errors, I realized it had been saved over somehow. I tried recovering it, but it just didn't work, so I had to rewrite the whole thing and I believe this is the longest chapter to date. I did it though.

Also, I wanted to let everyone know what I've started up a Tumblr dedicated to my stories, fan fiction, and recommendations. Head on over and check it out, then let me know what you think. The link is below and on my profile. And remember, reviews are deliciously goodness!

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	7. The Brady Bunch

**CHAPTER 07  
The Brady Bunch**

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**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Twilight or anything associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around and no copyright infringement is intended. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot.

**PREVIOUSLY, ON HOUSE OF THE HUNTERS: **The barbeque went as well as could be expected and eventually everyone left… except the new family. The family, who we discovered, unsurprisingly, were the Swans, joined the Cullens inside to play catch up and introduce the new generation. Mostly everyone hit it off and even Bella and Edward stood together as silent sentries over the room. Carlisle, Charlie, and Senior eventually approached the two with what they thought would be a brilliant idea; join forces. How will they handle the suggestion?

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**EPOV**

My grandfather, Liam's, office was a bit stuffy for my taste. It was a rather large space with two adjoining rooms that were only separated by a large opening in the wall where the door once stood, but the tones were rich and deep.

The entire office, including the large floor to nearly ceiling bookshelf and glass cabinet built in, was comprised of the same acacia wood. Nan had that shit imported from Brazil. The dark brown wood had tinges of reddish orange and light yellow accents that seemed to match the beige walls and sandy tiles perfectly.

You could tell the women in the family had a great eye for detail, but still… Not my style. I did, however, love the pool table and sitting area that was in the adjoining room.

Apparently it wasn't Bella's style either. She entered the room a few paces ahead of the rest of us and I watched as her eyes scanned over every available surface. Her eyes flickered back and forth quickly, assessing her surroundings and making assumptions, which were probably accurate, based off of the décor alone.

The room was closed off with no other exit visible to the naked eye aside from the door you entered through and I watched as she side stepped around the area before placing herself beside the wall next to the entrance.

Good girl. She was obviously trained well.

My grin tugged at the corner of my lips despite how I tried to stamp it down. I slid pass her and into the room, never letting my eyes land directly on her but always keeping her in my sight, and took a seat behind Pap's extravagant desk.

Looking at the set up in his office, one would think he was the Don of the largest crime family here in Chicago. However, I expected Aro's taste to be a bit more atrocious.

After settling in and watching the three men who proposed the idea take the chairs in front of the desk, I dove right into the reason we all found ourselves there. "Explain yourselves." My eyebrow quirked and I waved my hand before them.

Uncle Carlisle, always the one to take responsibility, sat up straighter in his chair. "We've known Charlie our entire lives. The story of how he came to be with us is one for him to tell, but I can promise you that we trust him and his family. I vouch on their behalf with my word… my life."

I wanted to raise my eyebrows up to my hairline… but I didn't. I couldn't give my thoughts away on the entire situation; especially because Bella and her father were here. This wasn't a private matter between the family. This was a business deal.

However, that was a shocking statement, notably in our family, with our line of work. I couldn't imagine vouching for one man, let alone an entire family of six; five adults and a child.

Vouching for a single man was stressful enough. If that man stepped out of line or failed to follow the rules, he would be dealt with and so would you. You may not get a bullet to the head like your beneficiary, but you'd surely take a hell of a beating.

We were like the _Families_ in that way, I suppose. We weren't the mafia by any means, but we lived by a similar code. Our family always came first, no matter what, there was never hesitation to pull the trigger and we definitely saw ourselves above the law.

The list could go on, but despite all of our similarities, we had one large difference. Women. If you asked my Nan to stay home and be a trophy wife, to prance around all dolled up and hold fund raisers while turning a blind eye to the massive amounts of blood money that poured through the doors, she'd smack you upside the head.

And then she would pull out the pistol that is always on her, somewhere or another, and make you swallow the barrel. My Nan and the other women in my family were kind and had amazingly generous hearts, but I would never go out of my way to fuck with one of them.

They're just as fucking crazy as the men.

Bella's attention was still largely focused on the three men before us as my uncle leaned back in the chair and allowed Charlie to take the lead. He grumbled and cleared his throat before starting in on his story.

"Bells, here, knows most of this, but I feel you should know exactly why we consider the Cullen's as family." I glanced up, catching Beauty's gaze once, before returning my attention to her father. My head nodded and I gestured for him to continue.

"I'm a man of few words, so, I'll tell you our long story in the shortest way possible. I lost my folks when I was too young… I was six, actually. Liam, your Pap, was a close friend of my father's. Before the state could take me, he offered to take me in."

He brought his hand up and swiped his thumb across his nose. I wasn't sure if it was a nervous habit or he was trying to keep himself from growing emotional. "I grew up with your dad and uncle. Went to school with those two shits and they were even my best men when I married my Renee."

I nodded, absorbing the information he was giving me before I placed my hand in the air, effectively stopping him. "As heartwarming as this story is, Charlie, I don't need to be reassured. My uncle laid his word _and_ his life down for you and your family. That's enough in my book. If you and yours fuck up, he'll be the one to answer for it. However, I would like one of you to explain why two girls and a giant will be beneficial to my operations."

I swore I heard a light huff of irritation from my Beauty, but I let it slide.

Charlie was about to grumble a response, most likely a sarcastic comment, but I put a quick stop to that shit with a single look and quirk of my brow. History be damned, I would not tolerate being disrespected as the head of our family.

My father sat forward this time, that stupid grin still plastered across his face. I was sure he was going senile. "It's a perfect match, son." He steepled his fingers in front of himself. "The numbers even out for team based operations and contracts, not to mention each one of you has a specific skill set that would come in very handy. Besides, the other four are getting along wonderfully."

I knew they were. Jasper was thinking with his dick and Rosalie was being pleasant out of obligation. Still, he did bring up valid points.

I nodded, for what felt like the hundredth time, and leaned back in the comfortable leather chair. It groaned slightly from overuse, but continued to support my weight.

Beauty pushed herself off of the wall and walked around the front of the men who still sat before me. She planted her ass on the edge of the desk and I watched it intently as she shimmied herself to get more comfortable. Suppressing the groan that wanted to push from my throat was hard enough, but then I heard her voice for only the second time tonight.

"We're not the fucking Brady Bunch."

Well, that was… something. And she definitely had a point. You couldn't just shove six people, trained killers at that, together, tell them to play nice, and send them on their merry way to carry out highly dangerous contracts across the surrounding states.

That was just a time bomb waiting to happen.

"She has a point, you know." I leaned back up, catching a whiff of strawberries and sunshine and something completely unique, before turning my glare back to my father. "You may have a past with the Swans, but the rest of us, including his own children, don't know jack-shit about each other. You can't expect us to be pushed together and everything magically falls into place."

Bella glanced over her shoulder and gave me an approving glance. That was a start, I supposed, but I'll need more than a nod of approval to get those deliciously tight jeans of hers on the floor.

Apparently I just couldn't keep myself in the green, because my idiotic mouth had to ruin it for me. "Besides," I continued, "Bella and Alice are extremely small and we already have Rose working our inside operations."

Her nod of approval instantly swept into a scowl and, admittedly, it startled me a bit. Beauty had a fierce side. She stood abruptly, pushing her entire body off of the desk, and pivoted to face me fully. With both arms stiff at her sides and her fists clinched tightly, she looked more like an angry kitten than the fierce tiger I'm sure she was trying to portray.

One corner of my lip turned up and I smirked. She just looked too fucking adorable, all ruffled and shit. "Calm down, tiger. I just assumed. What exactly _can_ you do?"

Her arms slacked after she realized there would be no need to prove herself at the moment and she matched my expression perfectly, giving me an infuriating smirk in return. "I think the shorter list is of what I can't do. The girl behind the scenes is Alice, so your Rosalie can speak with her about how they would like to split up the load."

Ah, she said '_your_ Rosalie'. She was obviously still drawing lines between our two groups. Apparently she was as reluctant about merging as I was. Despite all of that, I still nodded my agreement.

"Sure, sure. But before we even consider taking on jobs together, I want to see what your team has to offer. No offense, Bella, but the last thing I need is a person who can't pull their own weight and drags my family down with them. Unacceptable."

She paused for a moment, taking my words at face value, before she nodded. "I feel the same, so we're agreed." The fact that she thought my family could possibly drag hers down made my skin burn with annoyance. "Do you have a local gym or training grounds you frequent? We could head over and run through our skill sets. Perhaps then we can tell if these old bags here have an idea worth entertaining or not."

Her hand gestured beside her, indicating the three men who were watching our exchange. My uncle and father were intrigued, watching back and forth like a tennis match with small smiles in place, while Charlie sat there, arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.

Rose's gym was the only place we trained, regardless of the time or what we needed, minus long distance shooting, so that's what I brought up. "We could head over to TITS, Rose's gym."

My father and uncle were nodding their heads in silent agreement as I watched and waited patiently for Beauty's agreement. Her expression was careful as she regarded me. "TITS? Who names their gym TITS?"

I rolled my eyes and gave a small huff. "It's an acronym." My voice took on my niece's 'duh' tone. "The gym's name is _Thorn in Their Side_, TITS for short. We do all of our training there, including firearms. If you guys are up for a round of fun, I'm sure my cousins would enjoy letting off some steam."

For a moment, a very brief moment, I thought I saw a hint of a smile, but it passed quickly. I did, however, easily detect the mischievous glint behind her eye as she bobbed her head once in agreement. "I'm sure Alice and Em will enjoy the work out."

Bella walked back around her father and my family before exiting through the only door in the office. Once she was gone I let out a long breath and caught the eye of my father. He gave me a wicked grin in return before standing. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into, son."

Without any further information, he spun on his heel and followed Bella's departure, my uncle and Charlie trailing behind him.

An inkling of apprehension crawled up my spine as I thought about our upcoming activities, but I quickly swept it away. This was exactly what we needed. Jasper and I were still feeling deprived from our previous contract and Rose was always ready to up her training. Besides, it would be nice to know what the others are capable of. Friend or foe, that kind of information was important.

I guess it was time for a battle of the families.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Mmkay, so we're working our way into a bit more action. We'll be seeing some show off moves and what have you. I was also wondering what you guys thought of the constant Edward POVs. I enjoy writing from his view, but don't want to story to lack. Should I stick to it and do outtakes in Bella or other POVs or should I jump back and forth between the two of them? Remember, I nom-nom-nom reviews!


	8. Pretty With A Pistol

**CHAPTER 08  
Pretty With A Pistol**

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**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Twilight or anything associated with the Twilight Universe. I'm just playing around and no copyright infringement is intended. The only things that belong to me are my original characters and the plot.

**PREVIOUSLY, ON HOUSE OF THE HUNTERS: **Everyone has participated in the awkward meet and great and eventually the groups started to get to know each other a little better. Edward and Bella were approached by Carlisle, Charlie, and Edward Senior about joining their two groups together for safety reasons. The two leaders were reluctant, but offered to give it a 'test run', so to speak, by showing off their skills at Rosalie's gym, _Thorn in Their Side_.

* * *

**EPOV**

Jasper and I were helping Rose open up the gym a bit earlier than normal, anticipating the arrival of the Swans. It was just after eight in the morning and, even though I didn't exactly hate mornings, I wasn't very chipper either.

A fucking morning person, I was not.

Once everyone had reconvened in the sitting room last night, it was agreed that we would wait until the next day for our family feud. We were all pretty beat after a day full of unwelcomed socializing and party-going so we split for the night, agreeing to meet up the next morning at the gym, TITS, which we gave directions to.

_Thorn in Their Side_ was the gym my cousin opened up after the attack that lead to the birth of Riley. She realized, after Royce's impressive torture session by yours truly, that it wasn't his first attack and he surely hadn't planned on it being his last.

He was definitely a sick fucker.

Her mind had wondered how we could help possible future victims aside from donating obscene amounts of money to charities. Finally, she decided to open a gym and offer self defense classes.

It's not like the three of us weren't qualified for the job.

Rose bought the entire building that housed the gym, including the floor above it, which is where she and my niece lived when we weren't staying at the estate. We spent months repairing and renovating and, eventually, we were rewarded with what came to be known as the second best gym this side of Chicago.

The only reason it didn't rank first was because the man scoring the businesses made a pass at Rosalie. She didn't take too kindly to his advances and forcibly escorted him from the property. He was a perverted old bastard and, in my opinion, deserved much worse than what he got.

Still, the nasty fucker should have had the decency to be fair. TITS was immaculate. The interior felt more like a dojo or yoga class, with its padded, light gray carpeting and the entire length of the walls lined with mirrors. She liked to keep the equipment, such as the mannequin dummies and punching bags, out of the way until a class was in session, but left a handful of actual machines and gear, like a couple of treadmills, ellipticals, ropes, and such out on the floor at all times.

It was small, but it was fierce and put truth behind the saying of big things coming in small packages.

Jasper pulled me from my musings with a light bump against my shoulder. I jerked my eyes forward and watched as a large, red Jeep Wrangler barrel down the city street. The Swans sure knew how to make a fucking entrance.

It skidded to a stop at the curb in front of the building and Emmett immediately appeared from the driver's side. He wore a big grin that shed years from his face, making him appear more adolescent than adult. As he rounded the jeep, Bella and Alice stepped out of the passenger sides.

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, which was fortunate. Let's just hope they stayed that way because our sessions could get a bit… tense. Even while training alone, the three of us could get ridiculously competitive. It was a blessing and a curse, I supposed, but one of us always walked away with four extra Benjamins lining our wallet.

Alice sent a too-cheerful-for-the-morning smile in our direction as the trio approached us. "I've heard great things about this place, Rose. Could we get a quick tour before we start?" She wrapped her arm around Beauty's and followed my cousin inside.

They received a quick walk-around, seeing how there wasn't much to show off without everything pulled out and set up properly, but the Sprite didn't seem to mind. She 'ooh-ed' and 'ah-ed' in all of the appropriate places while making comments on the 'lovely' color scheme of black and charcoal grays with bright red accents.

Eventually we made our way to the back office. I wasn't going to lie. Showing them where we trained, where we conducted most of our family business, was a large leap of trust on my part. This was completely off the grid, even in the city's floor plans of TITS; a sanctuary of sorts

The entire group was silent as I stepped in front of a large painting. The artist did a magnificent job on the grayscale lion with a single red rose gently placed in his mouth and it was Rose's favorite due to the symbolism behind it; a lion for the Cullen family-line and a red rose as her own self interpretation.

I leveled my eyes with the regal creature's gaze and stood nearly stock-still. If one were watching carefully, the lion's right eye highlighted faintly with red. It could have been a trick of the shadows or a play of the light, but it was truly some of the best technology we had ever invested in hard at work.

The retinal scanner took mere seconds to detect and identify me before we heard the lock disengage and witnessed the seamless wall next to the picture push in and slide to the side. The silence held across the group as Jasper and Rosalie entered first, leading by example, and I took up the rear.

The door snapped close behind us just as fluorescent lights lined the stairwell we found ourselves on. Our decent was short as we came upon the Cullen's version of a playground.

And it was definitely my kind of playground.

Anything you were looking to do could be done in the gym beneath the gym. We spent twice as long preparing this space than we did the actual business and it was completely fucking worth it.

There was a single room, which was more of the size of an actual gymnasium, full of obstacles with alternating goals. Not to mention the vertical obstacle course, authentic rock wall included, the boxing ring, or the quarter mile track that ran around the entire perimeter.

But my favorite would have to be the shooting range. It was a fairly simple two lane, one hundred yard range with adjustable targets and two walls full of weapons. It was where I always gravitated to have fun or simply relieve stress.

I couldn't wait to set my fucking sights on the target at the end of the lane.

As if the creepy twin telepathy suddenly extended to cousins, Jasper stopped the group directly in front of the plexiglass stalls. "I know this is a lot to take in, so let's start off small and, if we feel like continuing, we can. Sound good?" My cousin didn't even bother to wait for a response as he side stepped the area. "This, here, is Edward's domain, so we'll let him go against whichever one of you choose to accept."

I smirked at him and stepped pass the flock of Swans, Bella following directly behind me. She matched my cocky expression as she eyed the wall of weapons on one side. "Is this where I step up and declare, 'challenge accepted'?" Her eyebrow cocked as she plucked a satchel of throwing knives and a basic Beretta from the collection.

A low chuckle rumbled through the group, my family included, at my Beauty's sassiness, but I just smiled. My mind was too wrapped up in imagining her firing the weapon in her hand. If I thought she was beautiful alone or straddling the amazing rocket she owned, then she was fucking stunning while easily clutching a pistol.

I shook my head and took the second set of her choices from my side of the plexiglass so we would be more evenly matched.

I couldn't have her saying I cheated when I kicked her fine ass.

"If you would consider this a challenge, then by all means, Swan, declare your acceptance." My fingers quickly went through the motions of checking the Beretta and loading the magazine. "What distance are you comfortable with?"

She copied my movements yet somehow made them sexual as her nimble fingers slid across the guns components. After checking and deeming everything up to par, she slid the oversized pair of noise suppressers on.

"Highest setting, Cullen!" Her voice rose to near shouting from the muffs covering her ears. I grinned at her and nodded at Jazz, knowing he would set the controls for us, before I slid suppressers over my own ears and released the safety.

What my Beauty didn't know was that our highest setting wasn't just the one hundred yard distance; it was a full blown course. Targets and civilians would maneuver around the individual lanes at random with varying speeds. It was a true test of your skills as a marksman and demanded a clear head.

This was going to be fucking fun!

Jasper counted down from three, loud enough for us to hear from our muffled worlds. I locked gazes with Bella, plastered a cocky smirk on my lips and sent a wink in her direction. "Three," She grinned in return and sent a wink back, nearly catching me off guard. "Two," I raised my gun and watched out of my peripheral as Bella did the same. "One!" Let the fun begin!

Targets began to appear in rapid succession. I didn't bother to check on Bella as I pierced the paper hearts and heads of the attackers, sparing the civilians just as easily.

The round was going quickly and I glanced up in time to watch Bella release her magazine and insert a new one. Before she could bring her gun back up, a target appeared nearly forty yards away. I jerked my gun to the left and shot the make-shift attacker twice in the chest and once in the head.

I half expected her to be pissed, but, if I was being honest with myself, I was going for impressed. Impressing a woman was one of the easiest ways to get her into bed, pissing her off… not so much. Her expression didn't give much away, but she eventually grinned and nodded.

Her reaction threw me, but I quickly realized her intent as she shot one of my targets directly in the heart. So we were sharing now? That was like the shooter's version of crossing streams.

Regardless, I humored her and began to put down the targets on her side as well as mine. If I missed one, she would handle it and vice versa. For two people who hadn't known each other for more than twelve hours, we were incredibly in sync.

Eventually, my pistol had run out of ammunition. I replaced the magazine and cocked the gun watching as fate turned the tables and a target placed itself in my lane. The timer sounded, buzzing obnoxiously loud, just as a knife flew from Bella's side of the lane, landing directly in the paper-man's head.

I shifted my gaze over and immediately wished I hadn't. Bella was standing there with another dagger twirling between her fingers and a sexy grin across her lips.

My cock would fall off from this much exposure to the real life version of my own personal wet dream.

I was fucking sure of it.

We replaced the weapons and removed our safety gear, causing the whoops and whistles from the group behind us to grow louder. I couldn't help locking my gaze with hers any more than I could help the fact that my southern friend seemed to instantly harden in her presence.

The traitorous bastard! But who could blame him?

She was sex on legs and it only intensified when she sent me that little smirk. Not to mention she was obviously a skilled marksman… extremely skilled. Her petite fingers could pull the trigger rapidly and accurately. Now I wondered what the rest of her toned body was capable of… in _and_ out of the sheets.

"I'm next!" Emmett's boisterous voice echoed around the space as the cheering quieted down. "Who wants to go up against '_The Beast_'?" As he spoke his self-given nickname, the brute of a man flexed his muscles in overly-exaggerated ways.

Alice rolled her eyes at her brother's antics and scoffed. "Pah-lease, Em. 'The Beast', my ass. More like '_The Teddy Bear'_." She then proceeded to bend her thin arms in muscle-men poses, mocking the man's earlier movements.

He chuckled deeply and the smile that spread across his face caused his dimples to reappear. "Alright, short-stuff, I'll remember that the next time you need these guns," he brought his arms up, flexing the muscles on his biceps, "to pull you out of another hole."

I swore I heard Alice muttering under her breath something along the lines of, "fall down one fucking hole that's twice as tall as you and he won't let you live it down," but I wasn't certain. Either way, Rosalie decided to step up to the plate and take on the hulk of a man.

They were fairly matched. Rose was an amazing shot. It must have been genetic or some shit because we all were, but Emmett obviously possessed a greater knowledge of the weapon they had chosen because he seemed to have won their round.

Up next were Jasper and Alice. My cousin kept sending side glances toward the small brunette. I wasn't sure if he was genuine or if he was following his dick radar, but it was obvious he was interested in something.

The Sprite was an excellent aim, but she lacked the speed I would prefer someone who was supposed to be covering my ass to have. Regardless, and even though Jasper's score nearly tripled hers, she sent a large smile in my Beauty's direction, which was returned. Bella looked proud.

Once the safety gear was wiped down and everything was replaced, Emmett clapped his hands loudly. "Alright, boys and girls, what's next?" I rolled my eyes at his overly excited tone, but couldn't help the small smile tugging at my lips.

He was definitely the loudest of the Swans.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Hope you enjoyed your dash of 'action' and a big thanks to those of you who answered my previous question about possible point of views. Remember, I nom-nom-nom reviews!

**OH YEAH!, I ALMOST FORGOT: **House of the Hunters was featured on Fic Diving over at A Different Forest and is now up in the voting for Fic Dive of the Month. Thanks to whoever recommended it. If you'd like to vote for it, head on over to poll-maker dot com /poll134976x2559479d-6 minus the spaces or you can find a click-able link on my profile. Voting closes on September 15th.


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